Sooner's stellar play fuels basketball fever in northern Mexico

CHIHUAHUA CITY, Mexico - They call it Najera locura in this border state's capital city. Najera hysteria, if you will. And what everyone is crazy about is Eduardo Najera, the Oklahoma Sooners'

Thursday, March 16th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CHIHUAHUA CITY, Mexico - They call it Najera locura in this border state's capital city. Najera hysteria, if you will. And what everyone is crazy about is Eduardo Najera, the Oklahoma Sooners' 6-foot-8 power forward and the best basketball player ever to come out of Mexico.

Mr. Najera, who takes to the court with his team Thursday in the NCAA Tournament ritual known as March Madness, has sparked a small basketball revolution in this soccer-crazed nation.

In Chihuahua state, where basketball has been played since the turn of the last century, Mr. Najera's world-class play has prompted many youngsters to dream of basketball scholarships to U.S. colleges and perhaps even a shot at the NBA.

They all want to be the next Najera, a boy who grew up with a basketball under his arm but who was forced to go north to follow his basketball dreams.

"The United States' gain is Mexico's loss," lamented Raymundo DomÃnguez Armendariz, his high school math teacher. "Mexico didn't appreciate his talents."

But Mr. Najera's obscurity in his own country is over. On Thursday, when the University of Oklahoma faces off against Winthrop, locals here will be part of the basketball madness.

Among those who will be glued to the TV set will be Mr. Najera's six brothers and sisters, said his father, Servando Najera.

"We're crazy," said the elder Mr. Najera, who played baseball as a youth and now works for the local water treatment plant. "We're all screaming, shouting and jumping up and down like crazy kids."

Mr. Najera is aware of his growing fame in Mexico. "It's neat that they are following Oklahoma basketball," he said after a recent Sooners game. "They are following me. But they get excited about watching the way we play. I'm just happy that they are supporting us and following me and my career."

At crowded basketball courts across Mexico, young players are seeing their own dreams realized in the career of Eduardo Najera.

"What Eduardo Najera has done is open doors for us and given us reason to dream big," said Eder David Galleros GonzÃ¡lez, 14, as he shot baskets in Mr. Najera's old gym in Chihuahua City. His mother plans to send him to Portland, Ore., with a sister so he can pursue his passion to play basketball.

Chihuahua state, which borders Texas and New Mexico, boasts a long basketball history. More kids play basketball in the state than soccer. Sport enthusiasts explain the phenomenon by pointing out that for decades Chihuahua residents have been able to watch basketball games on El Paso TV stations. What's more, national lore states that Mexico's tallest people come from Chihuahua.

Since the 1920s, when the Mexican basketball league was established, Chihuahua has won more than half of all the national titles. The state even has a women's basketball team called Las Adelitas, in honor of the women who fought alongside Pancho Villa during the 1910 Mexican Revolution.

Even so, and despite Mr. Najera's early-recognized talent, he almost never got a chance at big-time basketball.

He was brushed off by several Mexican colleges that didn't follow through with their promises of providing a full scholarship for the financially strapped teenager. But mentors such as Roberto GonzÃ¡lez of El Basquetbol Mexicano, an organization that promotes basketball among Mexican youths, persisted. They lobbied schools in Texas to take a look at the talented teen.

Cornerstone High School, a Christian school in San Antonio, accepted him, and within a year, Mr. Najera was being courted by major U.S. colleges, including Duke and Indiana.

"I only went to San Antonio as an exchange student to learn English," Mr. Najera said. "But I never thought I was going to be playing Division I basketball until late in 1994. That's when I learned that I had a pretty good opportunity to play college basketball."

He picked the University of Oklahoma because its dry lowlands and rugged terrain reminded him of home, where orange sunsets lazily stretch clear across the desert horizon.

These days, he's so solid that some scouts predict he could be a first-round draft pick in this June's National Basketball Association draft. What's already clear is that he's doing for basketball in Mexico what countryman Fernando Valenzuela did for Mexican baseball two decades ago with the Los Angeles Dodgers: elevating it to a new height.

Mr. Najera is the first to concede he's not a Valenzuela, but basketball mania is spreading. Mexico City's Reforma newspaper follows every Sooners game, splashing his photographs on its cover. Television Azteca broadcasts most of the Sooners' games, followed by lengthy analysis of Mr. Najera's play. And in a city where just about anything is for sale, his No. 21 Sooners jersey is suddenly replacing Michael Jordan's No. 23 on Mexico City and Chihuahua City basketball courts.

"He's charismatic, hard-working, disciplined and determined. He's our best hope," said Mr. GonzÃ¡lez, who played basketball at Michigan State University during the Magic Johnson years.

In Chihuahua City, Mr. Najera's former coaches say some scouts are now quietly inquiring about other prospects, other potential stars.

But there are problems, admitted RaÃºl Palma, Mr. Najera's high school coach and a former member of Mexico's national team. "Unfortunately, we lack the infrastructure, resources and vision to develop our basketball players," he said. "Many of them simply fall through the cracks."

Mr. Palma pointed out that Mr. Najera's play greatly improved after he left for the United States. He became more disciplined and more serious about his game. He also bulked up, thanks to special weight-training programs.

On a recent evening in Chihuahua City, San Antonio's Cornerstone faced a local high school team, Los Warriors de Chihuahua.

Dozens turned out to root for the locals and to see another favorite son return. Cornerstone's Gustavo RamÃrez, 16, is touted as Chihuahua's newest phenom. On this night, he scored 43 points.

His widowed father, Gustavo RamÃrez Sr., beamed with pride. It was Mr. RamÃrez who, through a couple of part-time jobs cleaning bars at midnight, organized a special league for his son and others such as Mr. Najera to practice their game.

Basketball is his son's ticket to a better life, Mr. RamÃrez explained. Perhaps his son, who has college recruiters biting from California and Texas, won't make it to the NBA. That's not important, he explained.

"Getting an education," Mr. RamÃrez said. "That's what this is all about. We want to teach them to have heart and to dream big. That's our goal."

It's a goal that Mr. Najera hasn't forgotten.
"I think about it every day," he said. "In America, I'm adjusting to this culture, but I'm not forgetting about where I'm coming from. I'm never going to forget that."

Staff writer Chip Brown contributed to this report.